Wagner believed in the unity of drama and music, that the two arts share a connected expression of a single dramatic idea. "10Poetry, scenic, design, staging, action, and music work together to form what he called a Gesamtkunstwerk (total or collective artwork)."
Wagner had a vision for music and dramatic text which he called music drama, although he himself later rejected the term and decided to call his music opera, drama or Bühnenfestpiel (festival stage play). And within one of he's essay he suggested the phrase 'acts of music made visible.'
Wagner believed that the core of the drama was in the music and other arts make it apparent. "11The orchestra conveys the inner aspect of drama, while the sung words articulate the outer aspect". The events and situations that emphasized
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these actions have developed feelings and experiences suggested by the music. The orchestra was the head in the music whilst the vocal lines are part of the musical texture, whilst traditionally the voices leads and the orchestra follows. "12In a Wagner drama, the dramatic thread is in the music itself led by the orchestral and the voices give it definition and precision through words. As he wrote in Opera and Drama, the dramatic singer's verse melody is like a boat borne upon the sounding surges of the orchestra." The term was used by write and philosopher K.F.E Trahndroff in an essay in 1827. Wagner used the term in two of his essays in 1849and the word has become associated with the aesthetic of his vision and work. The Greek were the first to initially use this term which convert example of total artistic synthesis, but the synthesis had subsequently been corrupted by Euripides. Which made Wagner feel like the art is drifting apart and resulting in 'monstrosities' as Grand Opera. "13The relationship between textual and musical structures is better in early adoptions than in later ones. The intended underlay of text and music is often not easily ascertain able in individual sources especially among the earlier ones." It is believed that the text was entered first with the melody to follow. It is assumed that the singers was familiar with the different melody types and was capable and flexible enough to adjust the text to the music in accordance. Thus can explain the indisputable differences in the relationship between text and music, "14for small textual differences that occurs from time to time, and for the use of different melodies in association with the same text." Wagner's greatest challenge was to understandably encountered while composing the music of the Ring was to find was how to perform a vast work meant over the time span of days, but still maintaining the listener’s interests.
"15He accomplished this in part though large scale key strictest and associative tonality within the 'music drama'. The action of the music drama would unfold in a way that evoked the timelessness of myth, taking its shape within the kind of the spectator under the influence of the particles streaming by, endlessly associated and reassociated by the events depicted or described."
Wagner's earlier Romantic consisted out of small reminiscence of motifs and in his music drama he wanted to create something far larger and interrelated. He called the new particles 'Hauptthemen (main themes) or Grundthemen (fundamental themes) but are best know was Leitmotives (leading motifs).' "16A Leitmotif is usually far shorter than what is typically meant by a full-fledged theme, and some are really atomic particles- a mere turn of phrase, a chord progression, even a single chord or, at their most minimal, a single interval. Earlier reminiscence motifs had served a dramatic
purpose." His "17innovation is that this many recurring and transforming leitmotifs served both dramatic and musical purposes. They indeed evoked a conceptual as well as a sensory response; their whole intended magic, in short, lies in their capacity to link the sensory and conceptualizing faculties. Leitmotives are the chief vehicle through which the artistic synthesis at the heart of the Wagnerian enterprise operates in his later operas. The influence on subsequent composers, especially in operas and film scores, was extraordinary."
William Henry Hadow and Charles Rosen are two historians who talk primarily about musical context. Hadow sets his discussion in the framework of classical composers' movement away from Baroque forms. He says that when Beethoven and his contemporaries chose ternary form over Baroque binary, typified in the dance suite, they chose a structure that was then used successfully into the twentieth century. This was only poss...
Until the nineteenth century, music was generally regarded as an international language. Folk music had always been in place and linked directly with particular regions. On a larger scale though, European music was a device for expression through the application of Italian techniques and styles. In other words, its technical vocabulary was Italian, and from the time of the early baroque, European music, in general, had evolved its styles and technical devices from the developments of Italian composers. Furthermore, court opera was nearly always performed in Italian, whether in Dresden or in London, no matter who composed it or where it was performed. For example, in 1855, Queen Victoria suggested to Richard Wagner that he translate his opera Tannhauser into Italian so that it could secure a production in London. Thus, European music, regardless of where it was composed could be (and was) performed throughout Europe and understood through the common Italian commands, descriptions, and styles. It was unacceptable for most to compose in any other way. The international idea began to collapse in the early nineteenth century as embattled nations or nations subjugated by a foreign invader began to think of music as an expression of their own national identity, personality, or as a way of voicing national aspirations.
There were many uses of sound in the play, for example, voice overs, sound effects, music, beats and more. The sounds used made the scene more realistic and made the audience feel like they are there with the characters. Some sounds which wer...
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
...ture of the play, mainly based on the Greek, outlines these values in poetical format in the Choral Odes. The chorus’ commentary on the characters and drama and its subsequent participation pushes the plot towards traditional ideas with the encapsulation in their ending summation.
What would the world be like without music? The world would be a very silent place. Music is in many ways the material of our lives and the meaning of society. It is a reminder of how things were in the old days, a suggestion of how things are, and a view of where society is leading to. Music is the direct reflection of the picture of art, music, and literature. Music can be a way to deliver messages, being poetic, a fine art, or it can just be for entertainment. No matter what it is used for, music is the perfect art there is and there are various types of music; such as classical and romantic. This paper will discuss how classical music and romantic music had a turning point in humanity’s social or cultural development, and how they have
The Baroque period, traversing from 1580- 1750, was a period in which numerous styles were formed. Affected by progressions in religious deduction also moves in political mentality, the florid music is rich in differentiations and disagreements, and the imaginative beliefs to which one arranger aimed would not so much be the same as an alternate's goals. Be that as it may, there all were steady values imparted by inventive brains, and vital to the reasoning of a Baroque craftsman, whether it was a painter, stone carver or musical performer, was a proclaimed goal to move the enthusiasms. The conviction was that music spoke to the feelings, or affections, of life, and consequently ought to energize the audience's feelings. This point spread past Italy, the 'source of Baroque symbolization in all its structures', to turn into one of the 'recognizing characteristics of creative endeavor'[1] all around the seventeenth and early eighteenth hundreds of years.
Wagner believed that as time went on, Greek art slowly disintegrated, each individual art going a separate way, developing alone—instrumentals without words, poetry without music, drama without either, etc. He believed it further disintegrated with the introduction of Christiani...
The artist’s composition utilizes theatrical gesture, dramatic facial expression, and local color, to convey a sense of urgency and drama to the scene. However, he places the composition in a classical
Artaud played a huge role in forwarding this concept of a Total Theatre within his own genre of performance, described as “one of the great, daring mapmakers” (Artaud, 1976, p.Ivii), he like Newson saw faults with the theatre of his time and realised his own genre of performance, the Theatre of Cruelty. Artaud was disgusted by the bourgeois culture of western theatre, a theatre which showed plays he believed skimmed the surface of reality making no effort to realise a deeper psychology. Artaud is quoted as saying “I have a body which experiences the world and spews out reality” (Esslin cites Artaud, 1976, p.48), “I no longer want to be deceived by illusions” (Esslin cites Artaud, 1976, p.48). He believed that the theatre along with media and publications were deceiving society “we are born, we live, we die in an environment of lies” (cites Artaud, 1976, p.xxvi). Much like Newson he was not afraid of controversial content and believed that to show an audience real emotion, you had to show it physically as well as verbally. His realisation brought theatre to reality, he saw that the body had the power to give the audience a reflection of their innermost human mental and emotional condition; it could uncov...
Greek drama is said to be “the model on which the creators of modern opera at the end of the sixteenth century based their work on” (Grout 11). There are significant differences between Greek drama and opera. For instance, the casts of Greek dramas consisted of only men (Grout 13). Also Greek dramas were not entirely sung, many parts were spoken with the majority of the singing done by the chorus (Grout 12). The function of the chorus was to convey the audience’s response (Grout 12). By the second century BCE, Greek drama went through significant changes inc...
After attending both a “popular” and “classical” musical concert it is easy to see the differences between these two genres of music. While attending these events, I noticed a wide variety of differences including the music being played, the atmosphere, the number of people attending and the expectations of the audience during the performance. As we talked about in Turino’s “Music as Social Life” earlier this semester both of the performances were presentational, placing a divide between the performer and the audience (Turino). In this essay, I will discuss my experiences at the performances, analyze a specific piece from each of the concert’s, identify musical elements within the piece and assess the role of the music in society. While both
From Wagner, we can hear his love for his wife in his music. Wagner style of music is known to be romantic. His music was a part of the romanticism era where the movement focused on humanity with emotion and nature. Wagner transformed the opera with his conception of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), in which he combined the poets, the visuals, the musicals and the dramatic arts, with music for the drama. Wagner greatly influenced classical music and is known to be the start of modern
...is expressed through emotion, imagination, and individuality. The period of Romanticism opened up a new Era to the world and continued that throughout other time periods. The art of self expression had become a new staple in western countries. The distinct qualities of romantic music made it simple to identify any artist and their work. The characteristics described through romantic music inspired composers to create a new form of the art important to them. Romanticism is one of the first ways artists stressed to reach their audiences through deep emotional appeals. Events in history were not always seen as a tragedies but as inspirations for pieces of music. Elements of music, acclaimed musicians lifestyles, famous composers, and the events in history that inspired these composers all are the contributing factors to the influential period of the Romantic Era.